AM  WHTk.  A*     m    »-.**.■ 


E.J.    BREHAUT 
BOSTONIANA  CCLL^TTON 


STATE  STREET 

A  BEIEF  ACCOUNT 

OF  A  BOSTON 

WAY 


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at 

IIM1 

Ut,0 


PRINTED   FOE  THE 

STATE  STREET  TRUST  COMPANY 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


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THE  ORNAMENTS  ON  PAGES  ONE,  THIRTY- 
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IN  STATE  STREET  WHERE  THE  BOSTON 
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TABLET  ON  THE  BUILDING  OPPOSITE 
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ADVERTISING  AND  PRINTING  COMPANY 

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THE  OEIGINALS  OF  THE  CUTS 
USED  IN  THIS  PAMPHLET  AND 
MANY  OTHEE  QUAINT  AND  IN- 
TEEESTING  PICTUEES  MAY  BE 
SEEN  ON  THE  WALLS  OF  THE 
MAIN  OFFICE  OF  THE  STATE 
STEEET  TEUST  COMPANY  AT 
38   STATE  STEEET,    BOSTON 


STATE  STREET 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  WAY. 

THE  street  is  old, — as  old  as  Boston 
itself.  If  one  would  look  for  its  ori- 
gin, he  must  go  back  to  the  days 
before  the  Puritans  of  St.  Botolph's  town  set 
foot  upon  the  hills  that  run  up  from  Boston  Har- 
bor. Even  then  he  is  forced  to  fall  upon  con- 
jecture, and  surmise  that  it  may  have  been  the 
trail  which  the  Indians  followed  from  their  camps 
on  Shawmut  Hills  to  their  fisheries  in  the 
bay.  William  Blackstone,  the  only  white  in- 
habitant on  Tri-mountain  previous  to  1630, 
may  have  trod  the  self-same  trail  on  his  way  along 
the  ridge,  which  was  the  principal  spur  from 
Century  Hill  down  to  the  water.  State  Street, 
despite  the  uncertainty  of  its  origin,  has  been 
from  the  very  day  of  Boston's  settlement  Bos- 
ton's most  important  thoroughfare. 

The  street  has  written  itself  large  and  per- 
manently in  the  records  of  an  ancient  town  and 
on  the  page  of  a  nation's   history.     When  Eng- 


STATE  STREET 


lish  ships  brought  English  goods  to  Puritan 
homes  in  the  days  of  the  first  settlers,  it  was  the 
mart  of  trade  and  the  seat  of  justice.  Upon 
it  lived  the  early  settlers  and  the  town's  first  mer- 
chants. Many  scenes  of  Provincial  interest  and 
Colonial  importance  had  here  their  setting,  and  on 
its  frosty  pavement  was  spilled  the  first  blood  of 
the  Revolution.  To-day  about  it  throbs  the 
financial  interest  of  a  great  State,  and  to  it  are 
ever  turning  for  help  the  industrial  projects  of 
a  great  nation. 

EARLY  COLONIAL  LANDMARKS. 

OUR  Puritan  forbears  were  men  of  order 
and  system, — men  who  believed  in  metes 
and  bounds  to  everything.  So  we  find 
them  early  setting  down  their  names  and  lands 
in  the  Book  of  Possessions,  and  back  to  this  old 
record  go  many  of  the  deeds  of  Boston.  This 
book  was  a  record  of  a  survey,  by  order  of  the 
General  Court,  April  1,  1634,  of  the  lands  and 
houses  of  the  first  inhabitants.  On  the  old  map, 
five  by  nine  feet,  is  the  earliest  record  of  State 
Street.  It  appears  a  short,  nameless  way  from 
the  water  up  to  the  hills,  and  is  dotted  on  either 
side  with  the  houses  of  the  first  settlers. 


STATE  STREET 


At  its  head,  where  now  the  Old  State  House 
stands,  was  the  first  market-place.  And  so  it 
was  that,  as  early  as  1636,  when  the  lines  of  cer- 
tain streets  were  fixed  and  had  by  popular  con- 
sent been  named,  State  Street  was  known  as 
Market  Street. 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  BOSTON. 

ACROSS  the  way  from  the  market-place  in 
1632,  on  the  site  since  occupied  by  Brazer's 
Building,  stood  the  first  meeting-house, 
later  dignified  as  the  First  Church.  It  was  a  rude 
but  substantial  building,  with  walls  of  mud  and 
thatched  roof.  Its  first  pastor,  the  Rev.  John 
Wilson,  lived  on  his  farm,  on  the  opposite  side  of 
Market  Street;  and  his  colleague  was  the  redoubt- 
able John  Cotton,  formerly  the  pastor  of  old  St. 
Botolph's,  Boston,  England.  Services  were  held 
under  the  trees  previous  to  its  erection.  The 
meeting-house  had  become  too  small  in  1639,  and 
in  1640  a  new  one  was  erected  on  the  site  of  the 
late  Joy  Building.  The  second  meeting-house 
was  destroyed  in  the  conflagration  of  1711,  the 
greatest  of  the  eight  great  fires  that  Boston  had 
then  experienced,  but  was  rebuilt.  General  Wash- 
ington with  all  his  troops,  after  the  siege  of  Boston, 


STATE  STREET 


attended  services  at  the  First  Church,  and  then 
adjourned  to  the  Bunch  of  Grapes  Tavern  to  re- 
fresh the  body. 


THE    BIBLE,   THE    ROD,   AND  A 
PRISONER. 

IN  those  early  days  of  rigid  lives  the  Bible  and 
the  rod  were  often  inseparable.  The  whipping- 
post and  the  stocks,  therefore,  stood  on  Market 
Street,  almost  in  front  of  the  door  of  the  First 
Church;  and  great  was  the  impartiality  with  which 
justice,  at  least,  was  then  dealt  out.  The  first 
prisoner,  for  instance,  of  the  stocks  was  the  car- 
penter, Edward  Palmer,  who  built  them  in  1639, 
The  town  fathers  were  incensed  at  his  exorbitant 
bill  for  their  construction,  and  they  laid  their 
strong  hands  upon  him,  and  he  forthwith  spent  an 
hour  as  a  prisoner  of  his  own  creation  and  as  a  for- 
bidding example  to  like  grasping  merchants  with 
whom  the  early  town  may  have  been  "afflicted." 
These  instruments  of  punishment  were,  in  later 
years,  put  on  wheels,  and  were  moved  from  place 
to  place.  The  stocks  in  1801  were  located  near 
Change  Avenue.  Public  whipping  was  not  inflicted 
in  Boston  after  1803. 

Market  Street  was  also  the  "sacred  way"  along 


STATE  STREET 


which    the   train   band   of    our   Puritan   fathers 
marched  and  manoeuvred. 

The  Provincial  Governors  were  inaugurated  in  the 
Town  House,  and  then,  appearing  in  the  famous 
window  of  the  east  balcony,  received  the  cheers 
of  the  populace.  As  the  town  grew,  the  streets 
slowly  multiplied  about  this  parent  of  Boston's 
thoroughfares;  and  finally,  May  3, 1708,  the  select- 
men, determining  that  Market  Street  should  have 
a  worthier  name,  ordered  that  "the  street  leading 
from  Cornhill,  includeing  the  wayes  on  each  side 
of  the  Town  house  extending  easterly  to  the  sea," 
should  be  called  "King  Street."  In  1784,  after 
the  Revolution  had  severed  all  the  regal  ties  of 
the  Commonwealth,  the  name  was  changed  to 
State  Street. 


AN    OLD    MAP,    SOME    STREETS, 
AND  THE  FIRST  MERCHANTS. 

A  VIEW  early  in  the  seventeenth  century 
shows  the  street  paved  with  pebbles  and 
without  sidewalks.  There  were  "many 
faire  shops,"  and  over  them  lived  the  Boston  mer- 
chants. The  first  map  upon  which  the  name 
"King  Street"  appears  was  that  of  Captain  John 
Bonner,  printed  in  1722  by  Francis  Deming,  and 


STATE  STREET 


sold  by  William  Price  "over  against  ye  Towne 
house."  Here  first  appears  also  Long  Wharf. 
The  harbor  previous  to  the  building  of  Long 
Wharf  in  1710,  which  quadrupled  King  Street, 
flowed  as  far  inland  as  Kilby  Street  on  the  south 
and  Merchants'  Row  on  the  north.  King  Street 
was  intercepted  between  Cornhill,  now  Washington 
Street,  and  the  bay  by  Pudding  Lane  and  Crooked 
Lane,  now  Devonshire  Street.  Crooked  Lane  ran 
through  the  farm  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  pastor  of 
the  First  Church.  Shrimpton  Street,  now  Exchange 
Place,  took  its  name  from  an  old  Bostonian,  as  did 
Pierce's  Alley,  now  Change  Avenue.  Leverett's 
Lane,  now  Congress  Street,  took  its  name  from 
Governor  Leverett.  Mackerel  Lane,  now  Kilby 
Street,  probably  took  its  name  from  its  proximity 
to  the  fish  market. 


FROM    WOOD    TO     BRICK     AND 
STONE. 

AS  early  as  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury brick  and  stone  had  begun  to  replace 
*  wood,  with  which  the  town  was  originally 
built.  Upon  State  Street  most  of  the  early  "first 
citizens"  of  Boston  had  their  homes.  On  the 
south-west  corner  lived  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  a 

7 


STATE  STREET 


leading  merchant,  founder  of  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company,  and  also  the 
founder  of  the  old  Town  House.  The  site  of 
his  house  later  was  that  of  Daniel  Henchman's 
bookstore,  where  General  Henry  Knox  served 
his  apprenticeship.  The  first  shop  in  Boston  was 
opened  by  James  Coggan  on  the  north-west 
corner  of  the  same  street.  He  lived  over  his 
place  of  business,  as  did  all  the  leading 
merchants  of  early  Boston.  The  Rev.  John 
Wilson's  home,  too,  was  on  Market  Street,  and 
just  east  of  the  old  Exchange  was  the  residence 
of  Governor  Leverett.  The  home  of  Richard 
Fairbanks,  the  first  postmaster,  stood  not  far  from 
the  old  Town  House.  The  General  Court  in 
1639  designated  it  as  the  place  for  all  letters  to 
be  sent  for  delivery  or  forwarding  over  the  seas. 

All  the  banks  and  brokers'  offices  in  the  town 
were  at  one  time  on  State  Street,  and  even  as  late 
as  1837  twenty-two  of  the  thirty-five  banks  stood 
upon  this  street.  A  branch  of  the  United  States 
Bank  from  1791  to  1836  stood  on  the  site  of  the 
Brazer  Building.  The  Massachusetts  Bank  was 
situated  where  No.  66  State  Street  was  in  1870. 
The  Union  Bank,  established  in  1792,  and  located 
on  the  south-east  corner  of  State  and  Exchange 
Streets,  is  on  the  site  of  the  old  Custom  House. 


STATE  STREET 


Previous  to  the  occupancy  by  the  Union  Bank  the  site 
was  the  dwelling-place  of  Perez  Morton.  Now 
it  is  the  home  of  the  State  Street  Trust  Company. 

LONG  WHARF  AND  ITS  STIRRING 
EPISODES. 

THE  houses  that  stood  on  Long  Wharf  are 
thought  to  have  been  the  first  numbered 
ones  in  Boston.  The  numbers  ran  from 
one  to  sixty-nine,  inclusive.  The  Directory  of 
Boston  for  1801  shows  the  highest  street  number 
on  State  Street  as  eighty-two.  On  the  north  side 
of  Long  Wharf,  which  the  Directory  says  "in 
every  respect  exceeds  anything  of  the  kind  in  the 
United  States,"  large  and  commodious  stores  are 
shown.  Long  Wharf  had  a  thoroughfare  thirty 
feet  wide  on  one  side  and  a  space  of  fifteen  feet  in 
the  middle  for  boats  to  come  up  and  unload. 
The  wharf  extended  State  Street  one  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  forty-three  feet  into  the  harbor 
in  a  straight  line  with  the  street,  and  the  breadth 
of  the  wharf  was  one  hundred  and  four  feet,  with 
seventeen  feet  of  water  at  ebb  tide  at  the  end.  It 
was  the  largest  of  the  eighty  wharves  and  quays 
in  Boston  at  this  time. 

The   wharf   has   witnessed   many   stirring    and 


STATE  STREET 


interesting  scenes.  It  was  the  landing-place  of 
the  Royal  Governors,  who,  escorted  by  the  flower 
of  the  Colony's  Militia,  marched  up  King  Street  to 
the  Town  House.  Here,  in  1768,  landed  the  first 
British  soldiers,  sent  over  by  the  king  to  overawe 
the  colonists,  still  incensed  by  the  injustice  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  Some  of  these  soldiers  were  quartered 
for  a  time  in  the  Old  State  House  before  going  into 
camp  on  the  Common  and  Dock  Square.  The 
French  allies,  under  Rochambeau,  were  later 
received  here  with  delight  by  the  populace.  And 
on  that  momentous  day,  in  June,  1775,  the  Royal 
Regiment  of  Colonel  Dalrymple  marched  down 
King  Street,  embarked  at  Long  Wharf,  and  en- 
tered the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  from  which  many 
of  the  regiment  never  returned.  The  old  custom 
of  marching  on  State  Street  has  continued,  and 
down  this  street  went  many  of  the  regiments  that 
Massachusetts  during  the  Rebellion  sent  to  the  front. 

GLEANINGS  FROM  AN  OLD  DI- 
RECTORY. 

TO  the  Bostonian  of  to-day  the   Directory 
of  1801   also   throws  much  light  on  well- 
known    Boston    names.     Here    are    some 
who  appear  with  offices  on  Long  Wharf:  Thomas 

11 


STATE  STREET 


C.  Amory,  merchant,  No.  36;  Uriah  Cotting, 
merchant,  No.  47,  who  built  Broad  Street  in  1808, 
India  Street  in  1809,  New  Cornhill  in  1817;  Ben- 
jamin W.  Foster,  merchant,  No.  26,  founder  of 
the  McLean  Asylum;  Caleb  Stimpson,  merchant, 
No.  2;  Arnold  Welles,  merchant,  No.  14,  com- 
mander of  the  Cadets  and  prominent  in  military 
affairs;  Timothy  Williams,  merchant,  No.  12. 

Among  the  other  prominent  business  men  on 
State  Street  in  1801  were  James  Abelard,  No.  78, 
with  whom  Due  de  Chartres,  afterwards  Louis 
Philippe,  lived  during  his  residence  in  Boston; 
Peter  C.  Brooks,  father-in-law  of  Charles  Francis 
Adams;  Humphrey  Clark,  No.  79,  and  Thomas 
Clark,  No.  61;  William  Endicott,  tailor,  No.  9; 
Joseph  Foster,  merchant,  No.  31;  Moses  M. 
Hayes,  Insurance,  No.  68,  Grand  Master  A.  F. 
&  A.  M.  1788-92;  Benjamin  and  Josiah  Loring, 
bookbinders;  Francis  C.  Lowell,  merchant,  No. 
25,  in  whose  honor  the  city  of  Lowell  was  named; 
Benjamin  Russell,  editor  and  publisher  of  the 
Sentinel,  No.  10;  Robert  G.  Shaw,  merchant  and 
philanthropist;  and  Samuel  Thaxter,  mathematical 
instrument  maker,  No.  49  State  Street. 

Other  well-known  Boston  names  can  be  found 
in  the  Directory  of  1801.  Some  business  enter- 
prises of  Boston  go  back  farther  than  this. 

12 


STATE  STREET 


SOMETHING     ABOUT      STATE 
STREET'S   OLD    TAVERNS. 

NUMEROUS  and  interesting  have  been 
the  public  houses  on  State  Street  which 
at  some  time  or  other  have  offered  their 
good  cheer  to  stranger  and  townsman.  A  "  water- 
side resort,"  the  Crown  Coffee  House,  was  the 
first  house  on  Long  Wharf  in  1712.  Seamen  from 
every  land  and  the  leading  merchants  and  the  young 
bucks  of  the  thriving  town  found  good  cheer  here, 
and  gossiped  at  a  time  when  a  gentleman  was  not 
above  the  seductions  of  piracy.  Many  strange 
tales  of  those  fierce  buccaneer  times  were  told  over 
the  glasses  of  this  ancient  hostelry.  On  the  south- 
west corner  of  Exchange  Place  and  State  Street 
stood  the  Royal  Exchange  Tavern,  where  in  1690 
Chief  Justice  Sewall  and  Colonel  William  Phipps 
had  a  famous  dinner.  This  William  Phipps,  by 
the  way,  son  of  a  Maine  gunsmith  and  blacksmith, 
had  located  a  treasure-ship  sunk  off  Hispaniola. 
He  recovered  three  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
gave  the  Crown  ten  thousand  as  its  share,  took 
twenty  thousand  pounds  as  his,  and  in  return  was 
made  a  knight  by  the  king,  and  then  first  Governor 
of  the  New  England  colonists  under  the  Charter. 

14 


STATE  STREET 


And  a  very  good  governor  he  was,  at  a  time  when 
good  Colonial  Governors  were  few  and  far  between. 
At  the  Royal  Exchange  in  1748  occurred  an 
altercation  between  Phillips  and  Woodbridge  that 
resulted  in  a  duel  on  the  Common  and  in  the  death 
of  Woodbridge.  This  old  tavern  was  still  stand- 
ing in  1801,  and  was  then  kept  by  Israel  Harris. 

ADMIRAL  VERNON  AND  THE 
SEAMAN'S  "GROG." 

THE  Admiral  Vernon  Tavern,  which  took 
its  name  from  the  famous  English  "sea 
dog"  whose  name  was  subsequently  given 
to  Mount  Vernon  by  Lawrence  Washington  who 
had  served  on  his  staff,  stood  on  the  easterly 
corner  of  State  Street  and  Merchants'  Row.  Over 
it  was  the  wooden  figure  of  the  English  admiral, 
sextant  in  hand,  in  the  uniform  of  his  rank, — 
quite  appropriate  as  a  sign  for  a  tavern,  when  we 
learn  that  from  the  hero  of  Porto  Bello  comes  the 
term  "grog,"  which  sea-faring  men  have  given  to 
strong  drink.  It  was  Admiral  Vernon's  custom  in 
stormy  weather  to  appear  on  deck  clad  in  a  coarse 
grogram.  From  this  he  was  dubbed  by  his  sailors 
"Old  Grog,"  and  soon  "grog"  was  the  term  they 
gave  to  the  rum  and  water  he  occasionally  dealt 

15 


STATE  STREET 


out  to  his  men.  Shem  Drowne,  who  carved  the 
figure  over  the  tavern,  was  noted  in  his  day  for 
the  ships'  figure-heads  he  turned  out,  and  his  work 
on  the  hero  of  Porto  Bello  was  watched  with  in- 
terest by  the  artist  Copley. 

Another  tavern  that  could  have  been  found  on 
State  Street  in  1787  was  Cummings  Tavern.  The 
Bunch  of  Grapes,  a  famous  resort,  kept  by  James 
Kendall,  in  1801  was  on  the  north-east  corner  of 
State  and  Kilby  Streets. 

Where  No.  66  State  Street  was  in  1870,  then  the 
site  of  the  Massachusetts  Bank,  the  British  Coffee 
House  offered  its  cheer.  Here  James  Otis,  of 
Stamp  Act  fame,  was  mortally  assaulted  by  one  of 
the  Excise  Commissioners  in  1769.  Poor  Otis,  he 
who  might  have  been  "the  flame  of  fire"  during 
the  Revolutionary  days  that  he  was  during  the  ex- 
citement of  the  Stamp  Act,  became  deranged  from 
the  blow,  and,  though  he  took  part  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  he  retired  to  Andover,  Mass.,  where 
in  1783  he  was  killed  by  a  stroke  of  lightning. 

The  Exchange  Coffee  House,  corner  of  State 
and  Devonshire  Streets,  with  an  entrance  on  each, 
was  built  in  1804,  burned  down  in  1818,  rebuilt 
in  1822,  and  closed  as  a  tavern  in  1854.  On  the 
site  of  75  State  Street  stood  in  1803  Fuller's 
Tavern. 

17 


STATE  STREET 


ROAST  OX  AND  THE  FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 

THE  strangest  scene  that  State  Street 
has  witnessed  was  the  barbecue  at  the 
time  of  the  French  Revolution.  America 
was  full  of  its  partisans,  and  nowhere  was  this 
friendly  sympathy  keener  than  in  Boston.  Bos- 
tonians  of  this  era  delighted  in  calling  each  other 
"citizens,"  and  strove  in  many  other  ways  to  show 
their  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  liberty  then  sweep- 
ing through  France.  The  feeling  found  expres- 
sion, two  days  after  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI., 
in  the  barbecue.  A  thousand-pound  ox  was  killed, 
and  its  horns  gilded  and  placed  on  an  altar  twenty 
feet  high.  Drawn  by  fifteen  horses  and  preceded 
by  two  hogsheads  of  punch  pulled  by  six  horses, 
and  accompanied  by  a  cart  of  bread,  it  was  es- 
corted through  the  streets  of  Boston,  and  finally  de- 
posited in  State  Street.  Tables  had  been  spread 
from  the  Old  State  House  to  Kilby  Street,  and  the 
citizens  feasted  upon  roast  ox  and  strong  punch, 
to  the  subsequent  confusion  of  many.  Boston's 
fair  women  decked  the  windows  of  the  neighboring 
houses,  and  amused  themselves  by  throwing  flow- 
ers upon  the  feasters,  until  the  scene  culminated 

18 


STATE  STREET 


in  what  some  of  the  best  citizens  characterized  as 
a  "  drunken  revelry."  When  the  news  of  the  exe- 
cution of  the  king  reached  America,  there  was  a 
sudden  revulsion  of  feeling  against  his  executioners. 

It  was  on  State  Street  near  the  Old  State  House, 
in  August,  1806,  that  Ben  Austin,  Jr.,  son  of 
"Honestus,"  a  well-known  political  pamphleteer, 
was  shot  and  killed,  during  a  political  row,  by 
Charles  Self  ridge.  Anthony  Burns,  the  fugitive 
slave,  was  escorted  by  the  entire  police  and  military 
force  of  Boston,  May  26,  1854,  down  State  Street 
to  the  vessel  that  carried  him  back  to  slavery. 

The  extension  of  State  Street  from  Chatham 
Row  to  Commercial  Street  occurred  April  13, 
1858.  It  was  extended  along  the  north  side  of 
State  Street  Block,  and  accepted  on  the  same  date 
in  1858,  and  was  extended  to  Atlantic  Avenue 
March  27,  1876. 


BUILDING  THE  TOWN  HOUSE. 

THE  chief  historic  interest  of  State  Street 
centres  about  the  Boston  Massacre  and 
the  Old  State  House.  The  original 
Town  House  stood,  as  we  have  learned,  on 
the  site  of  the  first  market-place,  and  may  be  called 
the   forbear  of  the  Old  State  House.     It  was  to 

19 


\   c\ 


STATE  STREET 


Captain  Robert  Keayne,  one  of  Boston's  earliest 
prominent  merchants,  that  the  town  was  indebted 
for  its  Town  House.  His  generosity  must  have 
heaped  coals  of  fire  upon  the  heads  of  his  towns- 
men. He  was  charged  by  them  with  making  ex- 
orbitant profits,  found  guilty,  and  cast  into  prison. 
At  his  death,  in  1656,  he  left  three  hundred 
pounds  to  Boston  for  the  erection  of  a  Town 
House,  and  defended  in  the  will  his  business 
conduct. 

He  outlined  that  the  Town  House  should  con- 
tain a  market-place,  room  for  the  Courts,  room  for 
the  Townsmen,  Commissioners,  for  a  library,  a 
gallery  for  the  Elders,  a  room  for  an  armory,  and 
rooms  for  merchants  and  masters  of  vessels.  The 
selectmen  considered  it,  and  in  March,  1656-57, 
the  town  chose  a  committee  to  consider  the  plans 
for  the  Town  House.  A  committee  was  given  full 
power  in  August,  1657,  to  erect  a  building,  and  to 
bind  the  town  for  the  payment  of  the  contract 
price. 

The  building  thus  constructed  was  sixty-six 
feet  long,  thirty-six  feet  wide,  set  upon  twenty-one 
pillars  ten  feet  high.  The  second  story  was  parti- 
tioned, making  the  rooms  desired.  There  was  a 
walk  on  top  fifteen  feet  wide,  with  two  turrets,  and 
balusters  and  rails  around  the  walk. 

21 


The  Old  State  House,  as  it  will  appear  at  the  Jamestown  Exposition 


STATE  STREET 


BURNING  OF  THE  OLD  TOWN 
HOUSE. 

AS  the  building  cost  six  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds,  the  balance  required  in  addition 
to  the  legacy  of  Captain  Keayne  was  con- 
tributed by  one  hundred  and  four  citizens.  The 
settlement  of  the  builder's  bill  was  on  Feb.  28, 1661. 
The  building  stood  until  the  fire  of  1711,  when  it 
and  one  hundred  houses  on  arid  in  the  neighborhood 
of  King  Street  were  consumed.  This  fire  burned 
all  the  houses  from  School  Street  to  Dock  Square, 
all  of  the  upper  part  of  King  Street,  the  Town 
House,  and  the  old  Meeting  House.  The  leading 
newspaper  of  the  day,  the  News-Letter,  ascribed 
the  source  of  the  fire  to  an  old  Scotch  woman  who 
lived  in  a  tenement  at  the  head  of  the  street.  A 
fire  she  was  using  spread  to  some  chips  and  other 
combustibles  near  by,  and  thence  to  the  tenement 
in  which  she  lived. 

A  new  Town  House  was  immediately  erected, 
one-half  of  the  expense  being  met  by  the  Province, 
and  one-quarter  by  the  town  of  Boston,  and  one- 
quarter  by  the  county  of  Suffolk.  The  building 
was  of  brick,  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  long, 
thirty-eight  feet  wide,  and  provided  accommoda- 

23 


STATE  STREET 


tion  for  the  Governor,  the  Courts,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Province,  and  for  the  Register  of  Deeds.  This 
second  Town  House  was  partially  burned  in  1747, 
and  the  present  structure,  built  in  1748,  has  an 
exterior  but  slightly  altered,  though  the  interior  has 
undergone  many  changes. 

A  CHAMBER  OF  EVENTS.-A 
PIRATE'S  TRIAL. 

JOHN  ADAMS  said,  "In  it  Independence  was 
born."  The  death  of  George  II.  and  the 
accession  of  George  III.  were  here  pro- 
claimed. In  it  Generals  Howe,  Clinton,  and 
Gage  held  a  counsel  of  war  before  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill.  On  July  18,  1776,  from  its  famous 
east  window  Colonel  Crafts  read  to  the  assembled 
multitude  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
from  it  also  the  sheriff  of  Suffolk  County  pro- 
claimed the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  Constitution  of  the  State 
in  1778  was  planned  within  its  walls.  Beneath 
it  John  Hancock  was  inaugurated  first  Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth.  Its  old  walls  witnessed 
the  convening  of  the  Convention  before  the  dele- 
gates adjourned  to  adopt  in  Federal  Street  Church 
the  Constitution  of  these  United  States.     Every 

24 


STATE  STREET 


page  of  the  old  records  of  the  Town  House  has 
interest.  It  was  the  centre  of  the  Revolution  of 
1689  when,  in  the  person  of  Governor  Andros, 
royal  authority  was  temporarily  overcome,  and  in 
1699  it  was  the  scene  of  the  trial  of  Captain  Kidd, 
the  greatest  pirate  of  an  age  of  famous  buccaneers. 
What  an  interesting  audience  of  spectators  there 
must  have  been, — stern  Puritans,  soldiers,  swarthy 
seamen,  perhaps  here  and  there  a  pirate,  in  dis- 
guise, and  the  austere  Governor  of  the  Province. 
What  a  picture  for  a  Macaiilay ! 

After  his  trial  and  conviction  in  the  Old  State 
House,  Captain  Kidd  was  conducted  to  the  gloomy, 
forbidding  pile  of  stones,  the  first  prison  of  the 
Commonwealth,  that  stood  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Court  House  at  the  head  of  Queen,  now  Court 
Street.  In  this  prison,  where  Kidd  remained  until 
his  execution,  were  imprisoned  the  witches  of 
those  curious  witchcraft  days.  So  cold  were  its 
dark  dungeons  that  the  pan  of  charcoal  allowed 
the  prisoners  often  failed  to  keep  the  frost 
from  them  during  the  bleak,  old-fashioned 
winters. 

This  prison,  at  the  time  of  its  erection,  was 
one  of  the  strongest  in  the  colonies.  Puritan  jus- 
tice, once  its  hands  fell  upon  an  offender,  was  in- 
deed difficult  to  escape. 

25 


STATE  STREET 


OLD  TOWN  HOUSE  BECOMES  THE 
STATE  HOUSE. 

THE  Town  House  was  the  scene  of  fes- 
tivities on  State  occasions,  and  in  it 
also  were  held  the  public  funerals  of  the 
early  times.  When  Faneuil  Hall  was  erected  in 
1740-42,  the  building  on  King  Street  became  the 
State  House,  where  the  Legislature  as  well  as 
the  Courts  assembled,  and  in  its  place  Faneuil 
Hall  became  the  Town  Hall. 

The  plans  for  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  June 
17,  1746,  described  as  "the  proudest  boast  of  our 
Provincial  history,"  were  conceived  and  com- 
pleted beneath  the  walls  of  the  Old  State  House. 
James  Otis,  "a  flame  of  fire,"  in  its  Court-room 
in  1761  made  his  celebrated  plea  against  the 
Writs  of  Assistance,  and  in  1766,  in  front  of  its 
doors,  a  mob  burned  the  Stamp  Clearances, 
one  of  the  violent  protests  against  the  injustice 
of  the  Stamp  Act.  In  the  Court-room  also 
occurred,  four  years  later,  the  trial  of  Captain 
Preston  and  the  soldiers  implicated  in  the  Boston 
Massacre.  And  here  Samuel  Adams  presented 
the  demand  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops  to 
the  fortress. 

26 


The  Bioorrr  Masaackk 


h»iai^-t^to«^3ftS7t?jrof»t»A3^aly«T^v<rf<»«*  &9'?^o1 


Wile  (a«Mef«r-n  and  h»  favatf- Band* 


!Jk»6erceBaroBn»n»  tfmonruj  oH'thorPr*?: 
Approve  UwCarna^tand  miey  tW  Da/, 


|riaUh<dlDp«fniniKA^fti«Ai<in<h«fung|Bat 


If (p*ed.W» Sorrow  Ubrnu< fcra Tongue 
OrifiWwpu^VRjddcan  ought  appeafe 
Thephuuin  OhoA*  ofWtinw  fucha»«ht*. 
Tbf  tauvm  capoaflar*  for  eadvu*  fhed. 
A  gtarau^Mwit  whicKanbalm*  the  Dead. 

ts4te/$f$*t&  Omc  SaMfrUviauaL.  jAH*CAiJjwnj,.Ciisrua  ArrucD*&i?CAn 


i  to  that  avid  Goal. 


WhertJt'mcE  rtupjtheMmdl-erofhji  Soul 
Should  veralC  -u  ftrfandal  of  thelaiid. 
Snatch  uv  rdendrftWbm  from  htr  8xtd 
KrenExrcranonaon,  Una  Hate  nucribU. 
Shall  reachaju»o»M»  newer  caaUbnW 


Reproduced  from  Paul  Revere's  Print  of  the  Boston  Massacre 


STATE  STREET 


THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE. 

THE  Boston  Massacre  was  the  culmina- 
tion of  the  altercations  between  the  peo- 
ple of  Boston  and  the  British  troops 
which  began  in  1768,  and  grew  more  and 
more  frequent  and  brutal.  The  massacre 
itself,  which  Paul  Revere  attempted  to  picture, 
took  place  March  5,  1770,  almost  in  front  of  the 
Union  Building,  Nos.  38  and  40  State  Street. 
Soon  after  nine  o'clock  on  a  frosty,  bright  moon- 
light night  two  young  men,  named  Archibald 
and  Merchant,  were  coming  down  Cornhill  Street 
(now  Washington)  together,  and  attempted  to 
pass  through  Boylston  Alley  without  answering  the 
challenge  of  the  sentry  there  posted.  The  sentry 
was  talking  with  a  rough-looking  character,  de- 
scribed at  the  trial  as  a  "mean-looking  Irishman," 
who  had  in  his  hand  a  large  club.  Archibald 
and  Merchant  were  held  up,  and  in  the  scuffle 
which  followed  Archibald  was  struck  on  the  arm, 
and  Merchant  had  his  clothes  pierced  and  his  skin 
grazed.  He  struck  the  soldier  with  a  stick  he  had 
with  him,  and  the  Irishman  ran  to  the  barracks 
to  alarm  the  soldiers,  returning  immediately  with 
two  of  them. 


STATE  STREET 


MOB  ATTACKS  SOLDIERS. 

THE  noise  of  this  scuffle  brought  a  num- 
ber of  people  to  the  place,  and  one  of 
them  knocked  down  a  soldier.  Fol- 
lowed by  the  crowd,  the  soldiers  returned  to  the 
barracks,  where  a  dozen  of  the  rest  of  the  soldiers 
ran  out,  armed,  and  drove  back  the  people  as  far  as 
Dock  Square.  The  officers  succeeded  in  inducing 
the  soldiers  to  return  to  their  barracks  on  Brattle 
Street,  and  they  were  followed  and  jeered  by  the 
mob. 

"Now for  the  main  guard,  damn  the  dogs!  Let 
us  go  and  kill  the  damn  scoundrel  of  a  sentry!" 
shouted  the  crowd.  A  part  of  the  mob,  which 
John  Adams,  the  patriot,  in  his  plea  in  defense 
of  the  soldiers,  described  as  "a  motley  rabble 
of  street  boys,  negroes  and  mulattoes,  Irish 
teagues  and  outlandish  Jack-tars,"  turned  upon 
the  sentry  who  stood  on  the  corner  of  Royal 
Exchange  Lane  and  King  Street  in  front  of  the 
Custom  House,  now  No.  40  State  Street,  on  the 
corner  of  Exchange  Street. 

"There  is  the  soldier  who  knocked  me  down," 
said  a  boy,  pointing  to  the  sentinel.  The  senti- 
nel retreated  up  the  steps,  and  loaded  his  gun. 

29 


STATE  STREET 


"The  lobster  is  going  to  fire,"  said  the  boy. 

"If  you  fire,  you  must  die  for  it,"  said  Henry 
Knox,  who  was  passing.  "I  don't  care,"  replied 
the  sentry.    "If  they  touch  me,  I  will  fire." 


CAPTAIN  PRESTON  TAKES  COM- 
MAND. 

CAPTAIN  THOMAS  PRESTON,  hearing 
of  the  trouble,  said  that  he  would  go  there 
himself,  to  see  that  they  would  do  no  more 
mischief.  Bells  began  to  ring,  as  many  supposed, 
for  a  fire  on  King  Street.  The  soldiers  in  the 
mean  time,  who  had  come  to  the  rescue  of  their 
comrades,  were  attacked  and  insulted  by  the  mob, 
led  by  a  mulatto,  named  Crispus  Attucks. 

The  soldiers  were  obliged  to  present  bayonets 
and  form  a  half -circle  in  front  of  the  Custom  House, 
to  protect  themselves.  In  great  peril  Captain 
Preston  stood  for  a  while  between  his  men  and  the 
mob,  using  every  effort  to  prevent  further  dis- 
turbance. 

"Are  the  soldiers  loaded?"  asked  a  bystander 
of  Captain  Preston. 

"Yes,"  answered  the  captain,  "with  powder  and 
ball." 

"Are  they  going  to  fire  on  the  inhabitants  ?  " 

30 


STATE  STREET 


"They  cannot,"  said  Captain  Preston,  "with- 
out my  orders." 

"For  God's  sake,"  said  Henry  Knox,  seizing 
Preston  by  the  coat,  "take  your  men  back!  If 
they  fire,  your  life  must  answer  for  the  conse- 
quences." 

"I  know  what  I  am  about,"  said  Captain 
Preston,  hurriedly. 

Some  called  out:  "Come  on,  you  bloody  backs, 
you  lobster  scoundrels!  Fire,  if  you  dare!  We 
know  you  dare  not." 

Just  then  a  soldier  received  a  severe  blow  from 
a  club,  whereupon  he  stepped  a  little  to  one  side, 
lifted  his  piece,  and  fired.  Captain  Preston  rep- 
rimanded him  for  firing,  and  while  he  was  speaking 
he  came  near  being  knocked  down  by  a  blow  from 
a  club  aimed  at  him.  The  crowd  pelted  the 
soldiers  with  stones  and  snowballs. 


CITIZENS  ARE  KILLED. 

THE  tumult  became  great.  Horrid  oaths 
and  imprecations  were  hurled  by  the  mob 
at  the  soldiers.  No  one  was  ever  able  to 
tell  whether  Captain  Preston  or  anybody  else  or- 
dered the  troops  to  fire,  but  fire  they  did,  some  seven 
or  eight  of  the  soldiers,  and  the  mob  hurriedly  drew 

31 


STATE  STREET 


back,  leaving  three  dead  on  the  ground,  two 
mortally  wounded,  and  several  slightly  wounded. 
The  killed  were  Samuel  Bray,  Samuel  Maverick, 
James  Caldwell,  Crispus  Attucks,  and  Patrick 
Carr.  Six  were  wounded,  two  of  them,  Chris- 
topher Monk  and  John  Clark,  mortally. 

The  people  came  back  to  remove  their  dead, 
and,  thinking  they  were  about  to  renew  the  at- 
tack, the  soldiers  lifted  their  guns  to  fire  again,  but 
Captain  Preston  stopped  them,  and  ordered  them 
back  to  the  main  guard,  thus  preventing  further 
bloodshed.  A  citizen  informed  the  captain  that 
there  were  five  thousand  people  coming  to  take 
his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  men.  He  disposed  his 
men  into  firing  parties  on  the  side  streets,  and 
people  began  to  gather  from  every  direction.  The 
people  cried  everywhere,  "Turn  out  with  your 
guns,  every  man!" 

Officers  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Regiment  of  the 
British,  on  making  their  way  to  their  companies, 
were  knocked  down  by  the  mob  and  many  injured, 
and  a  number  of  them  had  their  scabbards  taken 
away  from  them. 

Under  the  influence  of  Livingston,  Colonel 
Carr,  and  other  distinguished  citizens,  the  people 
were  persuaded  to  go  to  their  homes. 


32 


STATE  STREET 


SOLDIERS  ARE  TRIED  AND  CON- 
VICTED. 

A  HUGE  meeting  in  the  Old  South  Church 
was  held  the  next  morning,  and  it  was  re- 
solved impossible  for  the  townspeople  and  the 
soldiers  to  live  longer  together  in  amicable  relations. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  request  the  soldiers' 
removal.  Accordingly,  the  soldiers  were  sent  to 
the  Castle.  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers  en- 
gaged in  the  affray  were  arrested  and  tried  for 
murder.  Robert  Treat  Paine  and  Samuel  Quincy 
appeared  for  the  government,  and  John  Adams, 
Josiah  Quincy,  and  Sumner  Salter  Blowers  appeared 
for  the  prisoners.  Adams  made  an  eloquent  plea 
in  their  defence.  Two  were  found  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter, and  were  branded  on  the  hand  with  a 
red-hot  iron  and  discharged.  The  others  were 
acquitted.  The  remains  of  the  dead  were  buried 
in  the  Granary  Burying  ground.  Only  recently 
was  a  monument  to  their  memory  erected  on  Boston 
Common.  The  place  of  the  massacre  in  State 
Street  is  indicated  by  a  stone  block,  with  paving- 
stones  radiating  therefrom,  about  twelve  feet  south 
of  the  south-east  corner  of  State  and  Exchange 
Streets. 

33 


STATE  STREET 


MORE  EPISODES  OF  THE  OLD 
STATE  HOUSE. 

GOVERNOR  GAGE  was  sworn  into  office 
in  the  hall  of  the  Old  State  House  in  1774, 
and  from  the  east  balcony  window  went 
forth  again  the  usual  proclamation  of  a  new  royal 
representative.  From  1692,  until  1774-75,  when 
the  Province  concluded  to  dispense  with  its  Gov- 
ernors, eleven  such  chief  magistrates  had  received 
the  Royal  Commission,  and  had  been  proclaimed 
to  the  people  from  the  State  House. 

Musty  records  tell  of  General  Thomas  Gage,  com- 
mander of  all  the  troops  in  the  country,  landing 
at  Long  Wharf,  and  marching  up  King  Street, 
escorted  by  Boston  Cadets,  under  command  of 
John  Hancock,  who  later  was  sorely  disappointed 
because  he  was  not  made  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  that  fought  these  same  red-coats.  On 
the  same  balcony  stood  the  sheriff  of  Suffolk 
County  on  April  27,  1783,  when  he  read  to  the 
assembled  multitude  the  Proclamation  of  Peace; 
and,  when  General  Washington  visited  Boston  in 
October,  1789,  he  received  the  honors  of  the  town, 
and  viewed  the  procession  that  did  him  homage 


34 


STATE  STREET 


from  the  balcony  on  the  west  end  of  the  Old 
House,  from  which  there  had  been  erected  a  trium- 
phal arch, 


DARK  AGES  OF  COMMERCIALISM. 

THE  completion  of  the  new  State   House 
on   Beacon   Hill   in   1798  marks  the  end 
of  the  old  one  as  the  place  of  meeting  of 
the  Legislature,  and  the  date  of  the  removal  of  the 
irts  to  the  Court  House  on  Court  Street,  pre- 
viously known  as  Queen  Street 

After  the  removal  of  the  Legislature  and  Courts 
from  the  Old  State  House,  the  State,  the  County, 
and  the  City  had  a  falling  out  as  to  the  ownership 
of  the  Old  State  House  and  land,  but,  finally,  the 
property  came  into  the  possession  of  the  city  of 
Boston.  The  city  leased  the  building  to  tenants 
until  1830,  when  it  became  the  Citv  Hall.  After 
the  removal  of  the  city  offices  to  the  new  Chy  Hall 
on  School  Street,  the  historic  building  was  again 
given  over  to  tenants. 

Then  began  the  era  that  one  can  term  the  "Dark 
Aires"  of  the  building.  It  was  defaced  with  signs, 
wires  and  advertisements  so  that  its  worthy  ex- 
terior became  a  shabby  patchwork  of  colored 
publicity.    It   was   an  eye-sore,   and  cried  aloud 


STATE  STREET 


against  Boston's  lack  of  veneration  for  its  historic 
past.  The  city  awoke  finally  to  the  shame  of  the 
old  building  and  in  1881  it  ordered  a  complete 
restoration.  The  historic  edifice,  July  11,  1882, 
was  rededicated  with  appropriate  ceremonies  as  a 
repository  of  historic  things,  and  since  it  has  re- 
ceived the  careful  consideration  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. Now,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  the  Bostonian 
Society,  "  which  promotes  the  study  of  the  History 
of  Boston  and  the  preservation  of  its  antiquities, " 
it  is  what  the  venerable  building  ever  should  be, — a 
memorial  and  museum  of  the  most  important 
events  in  the  history  of  this  nation. 


OPPOSITE  THIS  SPOT 

ffl\SSBEDTHE  FIRST  BLOOD 

or  HE 

AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 

WmFfflO 


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OCCUPIED  BY 

THE  GENERAL  COURT 

1830- -1839 

1780 

JOHN  HANCOCK 

SIGNER  OF 

THE  DECURATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

WAS  HERE  INAUGURATED 

FIRST  GOVERNOR  OF 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 

1780- -1798 

tI 

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SITE  OF  PUBLIC  MARKET  PLA 
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FIRST  TOWN  HOUSE 
BUILT  1711  REBUILT  1713 
OCCUPIED  BY 
THE  GREAT  AND  GENERAL  COU 

AND 
THE  ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UND 
GEORGE  MM  II 

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STATE  STREET 


STATE  STREET  TRUST  COMPANY. 

ONE  of  the  oldest  buildings  and  one  of  the 
landmarks  of  State  Street  is  the  Union 
Building,  which  stands  directly  opposite 
the  spot  where  the  Boston  Massacre  took  place. 
This  building  was  erected  in  the  year  1826.  The 
lower  floor  of  the  building  is  occupied  by  the  main 
office  of  the  State  Street  Trust  Company,  which 
is  one  of  the  well-known  financial  institutions 
of  Boston  to-day.  Occupying  as  its  main  office 
one  of  the  old  buildings  on  State  Street,  the 
company  has  established  in  the  Back  Bay,  on  the 
corner  of  Massachusetts  Avenue  and  Boylston 
Street,  a  banking  building  of  the  most  modern 
type  exclusively  for  its  own  use. 


39 


STATE  STREET 


INSCRIPTION  ON  THE  PRINT 
SHOWING  THE  LANDING  OF  THE 
BRITISH  IN  BOSTON  IN  1768. 

THE  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the  illustra- 
tion on  page  10  reads,  "To  the  Earl  of 
Hillsborough,  His  Majest8,  Scry  of  State  for 
America  this  view  of  the  only  well  Plan'd  Expe- 
dition formed  for  Supporting  ye  dignity  of  Britain 
&  Chastizing  ye  insolence  of  America  is  hum7 
inscribed." 

The  printing  at  the  bottom  of  the  cut  gives 
the  names  of  the  numbered  ships  and  wharves 
and  battery  shown  in  the  cut: — 

"#1  Beaver,  #2  Senegal,  #3  Martin,  #4  Glas- 
gow, #5  Mermaid,  #6  Romney,  #7  Launceston, 
#8  Bonetta. 

"On  fryday  Septr  30th  1768,  the  Ships  of  War, 
armed  Schooners,  Transports  &c,  Came  up  the 
Harbour  and  Anchored  round  the  Town;  their 
Cannon  loaded,  a  Spring  on  their  Cables,  as  for 
a  regular  Siege.  At  noon  on  Saturday,  October 
the  l8t  the  fourteenth  &  twenty-ninth  Regi- 
ments, a  detachment  from  the  59th  Reg*  and  a 
Train  of  Artillery,  with  two  pieces  of  Cannon 
landed  on  the  Long  Wharf;    there  Formed  and 

41 


STATE  STREET 


Marched  with  insolent  Parade,  Drums  beating, 
Fifes  playing  and  Colours  flying  up  King  Street, 
each  Soldier  having  received  16  rounds  of  Powder 
and  Ball." 

The   imprint  is,    "Engraved,   Printed    &   Sold 
by  Paul  Revere,  Boston." 


42 


DATE  DUE 

uexj    i  t 

1994 

UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.    #859-5503 

F  STATE  STREET 

73.67 

•87 

S7 


Bapst  Library 

Boston  College 
Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.  02167 


